Austin Wiese, CFP, CHFC, CLTC - Northwestern Mutual

02/02/2026

A new office sign to start out 2026!
We are in the same space in Sheboygan, just a little easier to find.

11/14/2025

For those planning ahead, the IRS has announced an update to contribution limits for a variety of account types for 2026!

IR-2025-111, Nov. 13, 2025 — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that the amount individuals can contribute to their 401(k) plans in 2026 has increased to $24,500, up from $23,500 for 2025.

10/27/2025

Social Security announced the cost of living adjustment will be 2.8% for 2026. This is a slightly higher increase than the 2.5% increase in 2025. How do "they" come up with what the increase will be?

SSA starts with the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers which is a measure of the monthly price changes in a group of goods and services, like food, energy and medical care. This metric is tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the 3 summer months each year and is leaned on as how much inflation has impacted people receiving social security.

Is this a perfect system? Of course not, as inflation for various goods and services is impacted differently across the country, but that shouldn't overshadow how impactful the "COLA" feature of social security is as many pensions and other forms of lifetime income streams remain constant or "fixed" through the years. This causes its purchasing power to become less and less overtime.

This is extremely relevant to today's retirees as people are continuing to live much longer than they anticipated and having a source of income coming in as long as they live that is trying to keep up with rising prices is a massive benefit.

Baltimore, MD – The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced today that Social Security benefits, including Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance …

09/03/2025

A lot of changes have gone into effect with the passing of OBBBA and open up different opportunities to take advantage of. Give this article a read to read a summary of what has changed.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about how this can impact you!

What does the One Big Beautiful Act mean for the financial security profession? by Alex Kim Ms. Kim is vice president of public policy for the industry group Finseca. Visit www.finseca.org. On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law H.R. 1 — the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.” Touted as t...

05/29/2025

Thinking about 529s on 5/29.

529 accounts are educational savings accounts that have had many changes made to the flexibility of their use over the past few years so if you haven't been keeping up with the changes your impression on what these are accounts can do is likely outdated.

This attached article touches on a few of these points in depth, but think the biggest flexibility that rolled out back in 2024 is the ability in some circumstances to rollover unused 529 balances to a Roth IRA for the account beneficiary.

Reach out if you're considering putting away or have been putting away money for kids/grandkids and want to make sure you are utilizing the best solution to accomplish that!

Learn about the latest changes to 529 plans, including Secure 2.0 and Roth IRA changes, gift tax, student loan repayments, and more.

05/14/2025

"Should I be doing a Roth Conversion(s)?"

A great question and topic! This article touches on a few of the factors to take into account to decide if there is value in doing a Roth conversion. A few points that are outlined one should consider are your current annual income, future projected income in retirement, possible changes in tax rates, and subjectivity to the pro rata conversion rule.

Market volatility can seem to bring about a good opportunity to complete a Roth conversion, as you could theoretically convert over dollars that you believe are temporarily worth less, pay the taxes on those now, and let them rebound in a tax-free Roth IRA account.

A point of inefficiency is how and where you pay the taxes from. If you withhold them from the IRA as part of the distribution you may be subject to penalties if done prior to age 59.5 on top of the taxes you owe. You'd also have to factor in, are you selling investments that are also worth less to fund the tax bill for the conversion. If so, both of these factors would significantly reduce the effectiveness of doing a conversion when investments are down when factoring in all of these variables.

With all of this said, the more money you have in pre-tax retirement accounts (401(k), 403(b), etc.) to larger piece of your balance sheet that "Uncle Sam" is expecting a chunk of when the money comes out. Rothing money can add a lot of value in certain situations.

If you feel like this is a topic you should be exploring further than you have up until this point, feel free to reach out for a quick phone call conversation!

The timing of Roth conversions can make a big difference.

04/04/2025

"Despite the S&P 500 declining on average 14.2% intra-year, the stock market has finished the year positive in 34 of 45 years."

14.2% ON AVERAGE.

Consult a non-biased third party to help you build and maintain a financial plan to ensure you are taking on the right amount of volatility for YOU.

Feel free to reach out!

02/26/2025

The Saver's Credit and why I think it doesn't get taken advantage of as often as it could.

1. This is most relevant to people first entering the job market or to someone who became un or under employed for some part of the year. Typically, these individuals do their own taxes.

2. Adding as little information as possible to get the return in and completed. I've heard of people who've admitted that when doing their own taxes they think "I don't remember exactly how much I added to a Roth IRA (or insert other qualifying accounts) so I'll just leave it off. I don't get a deduction for it anyways. Let's just get this done and over with."

If you or someone you care about fit's into the income and other qualifications (details in the article) to utilize this tax credit, forward this over to them as it is quite beneficial and easy to miss.

The retirement savings contribution credit — the saver's credit — is a retirement savings incentive. It's worth up to $1,000, or $2,000 for joint filers.

02/19/2025

A great article to get you to think a little more critically about planning for retirement on a nice cold day in Wisconsin.

In my experience the #1 missing piece to solidify someone's financial plans for retirement.

= an accurate account of what they are used to spending and what they would like to live on once retired

A critical element to this is not to forget about the one-off expenses. David's findings mention people stopping saving for retiring and lowering costs of living when they pay off a mortgage and stop their commute.
I find most first drafts of what someone tells me they spend monthly/annually is void of accountanting for replacing a vehicle every 4-10 years, putting a new roof on, replacing HVAC, new windows in ther house, etc. These large expenses that you have every once in a while, but quickly have an impact on your annual spending.

Experts say it actually ranges from 54% to 87%, but here's how to decide how much you need.

02/14/2025

02/11/2025

Target date funds have become very popular over the past two decades for a multitude of reasons. This article does a great job at pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of them as an all-in-one investment allocation solution.

I think the following statement Neal Templin makes is a solid one sentence encapsulation on my thoughts on target date funds.
"While target-date funds work great for young investors accumulating wealth, they don’t work as well for retirees who already are spending down their nest egg.

Target-date funds were intended as the ultimate invest-it-and-forget-it vehicle for workers who need outside help to manage their retirement portfolios.

12/20/2024

An early Christmas gift 🎁 arrived last night as I received notice that I officially obtained my Wealth Management Certified Professional (WMCP®) designation!

I take a great pride in the amount of financial planning education I have completed up to this point, not because I like cluttering my walls with diplomas, or having an alphabet soup of letters I can put after my name.
But because I think that helping others make incredibly important life decisions with their money should be done with the utmost care and responsibility and one can only do their best at that if they are constantly learning.

On to the next one...